Today’s a rainy day. Perhaps this is one of the better days for it to be raining since I’m changing cities. Better now than when I’m out doing stuff, right? I’m writing this from the window seat of the shinkansen from Osaka to Nagoya. I read that Nagoya Station is the largest train station in the world by floor space. Nifty. I will be staying for the next three nights in Ryokan Meiryu, which was recommended in my travel guide. I sort of ran out of things I wanted to in Kansai do a day or two early, so I hope I don’t regret spending so little time in Nagoya. Worst case, it’s close enough to Tokyo that I can always day trip back, I suppose.

The two things I want to see in Nagoya most (that aren’t closed, like the robot museum) are the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology and Nagoya Castle. So, I figure I will get set up in Nagoya today and do my laundry (it’s either today or tomorrow), then in the next two days hit those two spots and anything nearby that looks interesting. I’ll keep my eyes open for Mos Burger, but it’s not a must-have and I’m sure there are plenty in Tokyo. Probably in Nagoya, too, since it’s something like the third-largest metropolitan area in Japan. Google Maps has been annoying as hell to find things, though, since searching for things in a city using “search nearby” doesn’t actually search the whole city. For example, after pulling up Osaka City, subsequently searching for Shin-Imamiya Station, on the Osaka Loop Line, returns nothing. It’s less than 10km away! Oh well.

At Shin-Osaka station this morning, I got into one of those situations where you and another person are approaching each other and both move the same way to let the other person pass, then both move the other way, then back off. The woman on the other side of this said “excuse me” in English, which caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting it.

This morning after putting all of my things together, I had a little more trouble closing my bag than a couple nights ago, probably because I had left a couple things out when I was checking then. Everything will be fine I’m sure. The main compartment is expandable, so worst case I do that. I just need to make sure I don’t pick up more large, rigid souvenirs like my rice bowl, which is still under 30cm in diameter but it’s about 10cm tall and made of wood so it’s not exactly flexible.

I hope the subway stations in Nagoya have escalators, Shin-Imamiya station did not and it was annoying to carry my bag around. It’s not the weight, it’s the size.

It will be interesting to see the size of my room in Nagoya, since they use the same size rooms for single, double, and triple accommodations. I’m going to stop here for now, and figure out where to get a city map.

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So the subway in Nagoya does not have escalators. Ugh. Oh well. At least I’m doing my major traveling during the day on weekdays, so the crowds aren’t that big. My room at the ryokan is nice and large (6ft by over 12ft), though washrooms are shared. I got out for a while and did some wandering/shopping and found myself a pretty sweet T-shirt that I will probably wear often once I’m back home.

For dinner, I went to a place where you order via a ticket machine and had curry rice with beef. Spicy and yummy. Fun fact: Japanese curry is an adaptation of British curry, which is an adaptation of Indian curry.